Spring is always a busy time for our household with all four birthdays falling in a seven-week period, starting with mine in April. This year we also had a wonderful family wedding in May, so it really has been a time of non-stop celebrations! đÂ
Also with an April birthday, twelve days before mine, is my Mum. When I was invited to enjoy a meal at Bill’s restaurant in Cambridge, it was the perfect opportunity to take my foot off the pedal for a while and enjoy a joint birthday lunch.
The Ivy. Those two words conjure up images of the rich & famous, of opulence, glamour, a place to see and be seen. In 2017, The Ivy in Covent Garden celebrated its centenary; having begun life in 1917 as a modest cafĂŠ, it quickly gained in popularity becoming an iconic London destination, known the world over.
My home city of Cambridge is now home to The Ivy Brasserie; it’s one of the newest restaurants to join The Ivy Collection. Opening day was Wednesday 14th March 2018, and I was invited to join a Bloggers’ Breakfast that morning. Would The Ivy live up to its reputation?
Pint Shop, in the very heart of Cambridge, will soon be celebrating its 4th birthday. Feeling that it would benefit from some sprucing up, the owners not only refreshed the paintwork, but also altered the layout to create two new dining rooms. To celebrate their revamp and new seasonal menu, they held a press & bloggers tasting lunch.
Unable to attend on the day, we were invited to dine on another occasion, and having never experienced their food (but hearing wonderful things about it), we were delighted to accept.
Cambridge Station was built in 1845, when it was located about a mile away from the city centre. Over the next century and a half Cambridge grew massively, until the station and city became one. Over the last few years, the station and its immediate surroundings have been transformed: CB1 is home to new apartments, office blocks, shops, hotels and eateries.
Only in the last few months has the area that greets visitors when they leave the station begun to take real shape. There are some unfinished sections, in particular the taxi rank, but the new businesses are pretty much fully functioning.
Are they the same, similar or different?
Well, nearly two hundred years ago Afternoon Tea became fashionable with the upper classes who would eat around 4 o’clock to stop the tummy rumbles between lunch and dinner; they’d nibble on dainty sandwiches and cakes with an abundance of tea. It would be a relaxed affair in the drawing room on comfy chairs.
The working classes had their Tea after a hard day’s work and so it was a more substantial family meal, and would normally include hot food and meat; basically it was their main meal of the day. It seems this became known as High Tea as it was eaten up at a table, literally sitting high, with Afternoon Tea taken at a low table.
If you were asked to name a luxury chocolate brand, chances are â if you live in the UK â your first answer would be Hotel Chocolat. Since the first shop opened in 2004 the brand has expanded and evolved over the last ten years and there are now over 80 stores worldwide.
With the manufacturing facility in Cambridgeshire the business has strong links with the Cambridge area. The founders had a dream of opening a new type of cafe in Cambridge city centre â in their words, âour first ever ârefuel stationâ where the cocoa and coffee love match is united at lastâ.
For a major fan of sushi (that’s me!) an invite to a tasting event at the brand new Wasabi in Cambridge was always going to be met with a resounding and immediate “Yes!”. Even better, there was a plus one option so I was able to take my lovely hubby. And so, on 17th June, Rob and I went to the #WasabiCambridge pre-launch evening.
There were a few concerns raised on social media ahead of the event about the venue’s readiness: a few hours before there was clearly still quite a bit to be done for the official opening the next day.
Day 7 of #100DaysNoTV was Date Night! We try to do something different for every date night, and when I saw that the foodPark Night Market fell on Rob’s birthday weekend, I thought it would be the perfect way to spend some special time together. Who doesn’t want to spend an evening eating and drinking with the person they love?!
#100DaysNoTV 